Procurement policy at City Hall to be reviewed

The second spur was a letter from the Independent Contractors and Businesses Association, urging municipal leaders “to commit to open, fair and transparent procurement policies.”

“When you’re looking at value for taxpayer dollar, you’ve got to look at everything,” says Mike Davis, Regional Vice President of the ICBA. “And for us, it’s about educating municipal leaders around the opportunities. And when you have 85 per cent of the construction workforce not applying to building trades opportunities and the community benefits agreement, we have to stay vocal on that.”

In fact, a motion was put forward by Councillor Kyle Sampson. It reads: “That Council directs staff to prepare a report highlighting opportunities to improve the City of Prince George’s procurement practices as well as the emerging “social procurement” practices being adopted by some municipalities, and that the report include recommendations to ensure procurement policies remain open, competitive, transparent, and most importantly that are beneficial to the local economy.”

“The ICBA represents a lot of small- and medium-sized enterprises and contractors,” says Mayor Yu. “And they want to be treated in such a way that local content can stabilize their workforce. These things they think are important.”

And addition to that motion, Council passed: “With information on how we can adapt to global/national issues and prioritize Canadian interests, such as in the event of American tariffs, so we can respond with practices that emphasize local/British Columbian/Canadian interests.”

“What is the policy that we, when we give out a contract, make sure the people set up shop here and they will have a way to grow because every time the local contractors get a contract, it’s good because the money stays here.”

Councillors Ron Polillo, Trudy Klassen and Garth Frizzell were opposed to the motion.

by Cheryl Jahn

Procurement policy at City Hall to be reviewed

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